Serving my babies pasta for a change

Our babies eat home-cooked food almost every day. Brown rice porridge with some steamed vegetables and fish or meat, coupled with the soup we drink for the day (less the salt).

But after a while, they became disinterested. Nobody likes to eat the same food every day. At times, we see them eating lesser than they usually do and enjoying yoghurt more than porridge.

I decided that they need something refreshing, and so I bought them baby pasta from Bellamy’s. The texture of the baby pasta is in between the rice and porridge, soft but chewy. The babies liked what they ate, so I am sharing our experience here.

Ingredients

Baby veggie alphabet pasta from Bellamy’s

Chicken stock

Steamed Fish (I use salmon or threadfin 午鱼 most of the time)

Soft vegetables, cut into tiny pieces

Method

Add the baby pasta to a pot of boiling water and boil for 5 minutes. I used half a packet for two babies and lunch and dinner.

Once the pasta is cooked, scoop them out from the pot and rinse under running water to stop the boiling process.

You can also find non-organic tiny ABC pasta from the supermarket for a more affordable version. After all, your baby is not eating this for just a day.

In the meantime, steam the fish and the vegetables in a separate pot. You may have to consider cooking the vegetables separately in another pot, especially if you are using green leafy vegetables such as spinach as the cooking time required is much shorter. Otherwise, add them to the same pot when the fish is half cooked.

Combine the pasta, chicken stock and all other ingredients in a serving bowl. Lunch is ready!

A note on the chicken stock.

We typically prepare a pot of nourishing soup for the entire family to consume for lunch and dinner. The soup will consist of chicken carcass and some herbs or root vegetables; We will let it boil for about an hour before setting one bowl aside for the babies’ meals.

These are some of my recipes.

Watercress Soup

Chinese Yam with Dang Shen Soup

Aloe Vera with Sweet Corn Soup

Today we had green papaya and peanut soup. As peanut is a high allergen food, we added in the peanuts in the soup pot only after we scooped out the chicken soup with papaya for the babies. Other than fibre and flavour, all the nutrients from the papaya have depleted from the one-hour boiling. Thus we gave them fruits in the afternoon to ensure that they get a balanced diet.

Prepare chicken stock efficiently

In case you are pressed for time, you can prepare the chicken stock just once a week. Store the unused chicken stock in separate small containers and freeze them. Take one out as and when needed. I like to use glass/ceramic contains like those from Lock&Lock to ensure food safety.